the world of art, design, interiors and all things beautiful

Archive for May, 2012

On the heels of yesterday’s post, I thought we would continue our journey to New Hope, PA and visit the cover story from the June 2012 Elle Decor…designer Darryl Carter collaborated with his client and longtime friend David Morey on this 4,000 square foot home just steps from the Delaware River…built in the 1940s with local stone on a turn-of-the-century foundation, the light filled, airy home boasts glorious views from almost every room…after devouring the article multiple times, what I found most extraordinary about this project was the way Carter re-imagined his clients’ family treasures…he created new works of art from beloved personal pieces by infusing a bit of modernity with tradition…take for example the coffee table in the living room (pictured below)…the Nakashima inspired cherry table, built by Morey’s father in the early 1960s, was enhanced by a Carter designed white metal structure…wrapped on three sides, it brings this family heirloom into the 21st century…how wonderful to see such an artful approach to preserving the past yet with a thoughtful eye to the present

Perfect for a quiet weekend get-away or for entertaining large crowds, this home brings to life all that Morey hoped for…a Zen life by the river…how extraordinary!

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In the interest of highlighting new talent, House Beautiful publishes a one page monthly feature titled The Next Wave…for the June 2012 issue, HB selected New Hope, PA designer Michael Herold, who describes his idea of luxury as an easy comfortable room with a touch of the exotic…I was so impressed with the HB photo of his work, I decided to explore his online portfolio, which includes projects from New Hope, New York, Philadelphia, as well as a stylish room he designed for the 2012 Junior League of Greater Princeton Designer Showhouse (last four photos)…although he gravitates toward a more neutral palette (warm greys are a signature), he believes every room should have an element of surprise…whether it’s a pair of kelly green table lamps or a leopard print pillow, he discovers a creative way to incorporate a jolt of the unexpected…please enjoy!

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Last night, I received an email from my brother Gary that included a link to the Yale Daily News…the link was to a story written by Marina Keegan, a prolific writer, actress and activist who recently graduated magna cum laude from Yale…may she be a source of inspiration for all of us and a reminder of how precious life is…

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The piece below was written by Marina Keegan ’12 for a special edition of the Yale Daily News distributed at the class of 2012’s commencement exercises last week. Keegan died in a car accident on Saturday. She was 22.

“We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I could say that’s what I want in life. What I’m grateful and thankful to have found at Yale, and what I’m scared of losing when we wake up tomorrow and leave this place.

It’s not quite love and it’s not quite community; it’s just this feeling that there are people, an abundance of people, who are in this together. Who are on your team. When the check is paid and you stay at the table. When it’s four a.m. and no one goes to bed. That night with the guitar. That night we can’t remember. That time we did, we went, we saw, we laughed, we felt. The hats.

Yale is full of tiny circles we pull around ourselves. A cappella groups, sports teams, houses, societies, clubs. These tiny groups that make us feel loved and safe and part of something even on our loneliest nights when we stumble home to our computers — partner-less, tired, awake. We won’t have those next year. We won’t live on the same block as all our friends. We won’t have a bunch of group-texts.

This scares me. More than finding the right job or city or spouse – I’m scared of losing this web we’re in. This elusive, indefinable, opposite of loneliness. This feeling I feel right now.

But let us get one thing straight: the best years of our lives are not behind us. They’re part of us and they are set for repetition as we grow up and move to New York and away from New York and wish we did or didn’t live in New York. I plan on having parties when I’m 30. I plan on having fun when I’m old. Any notion of THE BEST years comes from clichéd “should haves…” “if I’d…” “wish I’d…”

Of course, there are things we wished we did: our readings, that boy across the hall. We’re our own hardest critics and it’s easy to let ourselves down. Sleeping too late. Procrastinating. Cutting corners. More than once I’ve looked back on my High School self and thought: how did I do that? How did I work so hard? Our private insecurities follow us and will always follow us.

But the thing is, we’re all like that. Nobody wakes up when they want to. Nobody did all of their reading (except maybe the crazy people who win the prizes…) We have these impossibly high standards and we’ll probably never live up to our perfect fantasies of our future selves. But I feel like that’s okay.

We’re so young. We’re so young. We’re twenty-two years old. We have so much time. There’s this sentiment I sometimes sense, creeping in our collective conscious as we lay alone after a party, or pack up our books when we give in and go out – that it is somehow too late. That others are somehow ahead. More accomplished, more specialized. More on the path to somehow saving the world, somehow creating or inventing or improving. That it’s too late now to BEGIN a beginning and we must settle for continuance, for commencement.

When we came to Yale, there was this sense of possibility. This immense and indefinable potential energy – and it’s easy to feel like that’s slipped away. We never had to choose and suddenly we’ve had to. Some of us have focused ourselves. Some of us know exactly what we want and are on the path to get it; already going to med school, working at the perfect NGO, doing research. To you I say both congratulations and you suck.

For most of us, however, we’re somewhat lost in this sea of liberal arts. Not quite sure what road we’re on and whether we should have taken it. If only I had majored in biology…if only I’d gotten involved in journalism as a freshman…if only I’d thought to apply for this or for that…

What we have to remember is that we can still do anything. We can change our minds. We can start over. Get a post-bac or try writing for the first time. The notion that it’s too late to do anything is comical. It’s hilarious. We’re graduating college. We’re so young. We can’t, we MUST not lose this sense of possibility because in the end, it’s all we have.

In the heart of a winter Friday night my freshman year, I was dazed and confused when I got a call from my friends to meet them at EST EST EST. Dazedly and confusedly, I began trudging to SSS, probably the point on campus farthest away. Remarkably, it wasn’t until I arrived at the door that I questioned how and why exactly my friends were partying in Yale’s administrative building. Of course, they weren’t. But it was cold and my ID somehow worked so I went inside SSS to pull out my phone. It was quiet, the old wood creaking and the snow barely visible outside the stained glass. And I sat down. And I looked up. At this giant room I was in. At this place where thousands of people had sat before me. And alone, at night, in the middle of a New Haven storm, I felt so remarkably, unbelievably safe.

We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I’d say that’s how I feel at Yale. How I feel right now. Here. With all of you. In love, impressed, humbled, scared. And we don’t have to lose that.

We’re in this together, 2012. Let’s make something happen to this world.”

~ Marina Keegan

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“Doesn’t it seem to you,” asked Madame Bovary, “that the mind moves more freely in the presence of that boundless expanse, that the sight of it elevates the soul and gives rise to thoughts of the infinite and the ideal?” ~ Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary

Wishing you a wonderful LONG weekend…see you Tuesday!

Ring of Kerry, Ireland ~ Manfredi Merciai

West Bengel, India ~ Subhajit Mitra

Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain ~ Shadi Nassri

Big Sur, California ~ Karen Schofield

Victoria, Australia ~ Florian Haid

Koh Rong Saloem, Cambodia ~ Emanuele Siracusa

Victoria, Australia ~ Jin Choi

County Sligo, Ireland ~ Ashleigh Ehnts

Langkawi, Malaysia ~ Anupama Mohan

Hermosa Beach, California ~ Donna Gatz

Arrabida Mountains, Portugal ~ Miguel Claro

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With Memorial Day weekend around the corner, I thought we could celebrate the unofficial start of summer with a look at beaches from around the world…from the crystal clear turquoise waters of the Bahamas to the rippled terra cotta sands of Pranburi Beach, Thailand, may this post transport you to a blissful world of beauty…more tomorrow!

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On the heels of yesterday’s post, I thought you might enjoy a look at the NEW Ocean House located in picturesque Watch Hill, Rhode Island!

On 6/1/2010, the Ocean House, a luxury Victorian-era seaside resort, re-opened its doors after a $140 million rebuild and restoration…more than 5,000 salvageable artifacts and furnishing elements were lovingly harvested from the original structure’s historic interiors and are now part of the new construction…in addition to 49 spacious guestrooms and 23 private residences, the new Ocean House offers guests farm-to-table cuisine utilizing estate-grown ingredients from the resort’s 10-acre farm, a 12,000 square foot Spa, and a state-of-the-art fitness center complete with a yoga studio and 20-meter indoor lap pool…how wonderful to see this 144 year old grand dame re-imagined for the 21st century!

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Some of my fondest childhood memories are of summer vacations spent at the beach with my family…after a rigorous morning of body surfing and rock collecting, I remember gathering for lunch atop a sandy blanket, hands down the best tasting meal ever! When I happened upon these vintage photos, all of these wonderful memories came flooding back…moments in time as seen through the eyes of the late William Kendall Dingledine ~ Watch Hill, RI, summer of 1946

1946 ~ My parents were teenagers, Harry S. Truman was president of the United States, songs by Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole topped the charts, the musical film Ziegfeld Follies starring Fred Astaire and Judy Garland was in movie theaters, Pablo Picasso painted Woman-Flower while Henri Matisse painted L’Asie and Aaron Copland composed his Symphony No. 3…